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    Dragon Age II

    Game » consists of 16 releases. Released Mar 08, 2011

    This sequel to Dragon Age: Origins features faster combat, a new art style, and a brand new, fully voiced main character named Hawke.

    Big changes coming to Dragon Age 2 (Patch 1.03/TU 1.02)

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    FritzDude

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    #1  Edited By FritzDude

    As the second major patch is already in certification at each handholder, and will come soon on all platforms, Bioware seems to take a lot of feedback from their users and QA teams. The combat will be somewhat changed in this upcoming update for Dragon Age 2. Here's a rundown on what changes you may expect in the upcoming patch next week (Xbox 360 - Tuesday May 31.  PS3 EU - Monday May 30. The rest shortly after): Source: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/300/index/7426658/6
     

  • General Improvements - We've slowed the initial pace of enemies at the start of combat, allowing tactical positioning to play a more useful and important role. They also generally gain more health as the game progresses, they're less likely to explode into puddles of blood and gore all the time and their basic attacks are less likely to cause interruptions. Likewise, party members now resume their previous actions once interrupted so you don't have to micromanage them as much and ask them to swig that potion more than once. That said, silence effects and disruptions to stealth have been beefed up a little, making those rarer sorts of interruptions play a more critical role. Enemy commanders are also a little smarter, throwing stun grenades while encouraging their troops to concentrate on a single target. And elemental resistances actually cap out at 95% now, meaning no one can be fully immune to a given damage type.

  • Warriors - Overall, warriors were a little more powerful than we wanted them to be, making combat a bit of a cakewalk for these players. The bulk of this had to do with how frequently various abilities were applying the Stagger effect so a lot of our efforts were focused on scaling that frequency back a little (we also reduced other classes' ability to take advantage of the Stagger effect as well). The costs and effectiveness of a few abilities were also tweaked and we increased the effectiveness of some of the threat generation abilities. The effectiveness of abilities like Berzerk were also made more effective.

  • Rogues - Rogues, on the other hand, were still a little weaker than we wanted. They'll now regenerate stamina more quickly while performing basic attacks, we've increased the damage of some abilities, and we've made it easier for them to disorient their opponents and reduce their threat levels. We did lengthen some of the cooldowns, however.

  • Mages - Mages were a bit of a mixed bag and it was very easy for them to unintentionally evolve into glass cannons - powerful but finicky and fragile. Part of this was due to disparity between their different ability chains and upgrade paths, for instance, with some being obviously underpowered and others over-powered. We wanted to make them a little more forgiving and easier to play while also achieving a more even balance between the different upgrade paths. We juggled the damage and duration of a bunch of offensive abilities up and down to achieve that balance while also making their defensive abilities a little more powerful.
  • Failure to Launch - Some PC users were still encountering some strange edge cases that were fundamentally preventing them from being able to launch the game. Some Windows administrator accounts were receiving errors about insufficient priveleges - it turns out that was due to a corrupted file in the Windows OS so we changed our code to fail more gracefully when it encounters that problem, allowing the game to continue. This same issue was also causing an error regarding an AWC.dll file and that has also been fixed. A variety of other launch issues were also fixed. Importantly, a lot of these fixes have made their way back into some of our central EA technology, ensuring that these edge cases are addressed across a wide range of recent and upcoming EA titles.

  • DirectX 11 - Outside of the patch, AMD and nVidia have both released new drivers that greatly improve the speed and stability of the game on various cards and configurations. If you don't have the latest, definitely get them. On our side, we've added some additional checking and error messaging to our options page, preventing users from selecting certain settings if they don't have the drivers they need. Also, we had a wierd case where the full-screen gamma settings weren't saving properly and were interfering with your choice of DirectX 9 vs DirectX 11 renderer, resulting in a lot of confusion around precisely which renderer was in use.

  • Crashes - Did you know that when you play logged in on some platforms, if you crash, you're presented with an option to send us an error report? Thanks to all of you who've done so, we've been able to track down and resolve a variety of crashes. We found one that was tied to the animation of the shimmer effect you see on corpse loot, for example, and another that was tied to how arrays were sometimes used and cleared in scripting (this particular one was most evident in some combat that would occur in the Lowtown Night area). So thanks to all of you who sent in those automated error reports - it really does make a difference!

  • Achievements - The Epic, Supplier, and Archeologist achievements were all experiencing some logic errors and not unlocking reliably in all cases. We dug in, figured out what the problems were, and fixed them one by one.

  • Character Corruption, Slow-Mo Hawke, etc. - Not only did we find and correct a lot of these issues at the source (some of which was already tackled in the previous patch) but we also went in and added some code to the "Load Game" process to ensure a retro-active fix for everyone and to catch any other rare cases that might have slipped through.

  • Broken Plots - We made a bunch of fixes to plots like "Who Needs Rescuing," "Friendly Concern," "Act of Mercy," "A Murder of Crows," "A New Path," "Bait and Switch," "Demands of the Qun," "Dissent," "No Rest for the Wicked," "The Captain's Condolences," "The Last Straw," "Wayward Son," and more. We've also tweaked some banter, how some Rivalry/Friendship points are assigned, and corrected a lot of the references to events imported from your Dragon Age: Origins playthrough.

  • Traps - Trap behavior no longer gets out of synch with the visual effect and we also decided they shouldn't cause injuries (a neat idea in theory but it wasn't fun in practice and was never properly communicated within the game).

  • Items - We had some items that were supposed to be class-specific and weren't, we had some where the damage type didn't match their elemental bonuses, and we had some where the item properties interacted with certain abilities in uncool ways. The Maker's Sigh potion was causing a variety of issues and exploits (if you gave it to an archer, it would alter your inventory capacity... Huh?). Item use within the tactics menu was also improved. All of this should now be much happier.

  • Runes - When a party member changed their armor, the runes would often vaporise never to be seen again. We fixed that little five-finger discount and made Varric go stand in the corner until he's willing to apologise for what he's done.

  • DLC - We made sure that your storage chest carries over properly to the Hawke estate after you complete the main campaign and also got rid of some edge cases where it would have items in it but not open until you left the area and returned. Even better, your Mabari Hound from the Black Emporium content now follows you more reliably and has a new interaction with Fenris during your fourth year in Kirkwall. We also fixed a timeout that was occurring when players with a large number of promotional items would attempt to log in.

  • Audio Balance - We weren't happy with how loud combat audio was in comparison to exploration and dialog so our audio team did some fine-tuning on that.

  • Gameplay Options - We now offer PC users two new settings in the Gameplay Options menu. One allows you to enable persistent highlighting on useable objects, similar to holding down the Tab key, while the other allows users experiencing performance issues to select a faster but less accurate mouse targeting method.

  •  

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    valrog

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    #2  Edited By valrog

    I would like if they fixed the AoE spells targeting.

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    shinigami420

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    #3  Edited By shinigami420

    Wow great  
     
    still have not finished Dragon Age 2

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    Spoonman671

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    #4  Edited By Spoonman671

    Do the consoles have auto-attack yet?  I don't see it on this list, but I haven't been keeping up with all the patches for Dragon Age 2.

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    FritzDude

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    #5  Edited By FritzDude

    @Spoonman671
    Auto attack was added in the first patch. Just go to the option menu under Gameplay to check it.

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    jkuc316

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    #6  Edited By jkuc316

    I've been waiting for this patch, now I'll play DA2 again

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    jeanluc

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    #7  Edited By jeanluc  Staff
    Sounds great. I'm glad they're taking in feedback.
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    BlackHeronBlue

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    #8  Edited By BlackHeronBlue

    hope they fix DX11 for good now. I wanna play it on highest possible settings.

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    Aetheldod

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    #9  Edited By Aetheldod

    What????? Warriors were awesome as they were >:3 not getting this patch

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    Xdsk

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    #10  Edited By Xdsk

    Have they fixed the re-used textures and areas?  
     
    I suppose this is good news for those who have yet to play this, or have waited to play it. But im surprised people are still remotely interested in this game.

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    alistercat

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    #11  Edited By alistercat

    Still no fix for the Sketchy Quest? Ugggghhh... that quest was broken in both my playthroughs.

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    deactivated-5e49e9175da37

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    Man, that's the kind of tweaks you expect in a Blizzard game or a competitive fighter, not a singleplayer RPG.  Good on them.  Makes me more interested in a second playthrough.

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    RIDEBIRD

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    #13  Edited By RIDEBIRD

    Did they add about 40 more dungeons? Nope? Okay, still not fixed.

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    swoxx

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    #14  Edited By swoxx

    Too little too late, games finished and traded in months ago.

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    TaliciaDragonsong

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    Looks like they're getting some practice for SWTOR in with these patch notes.

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    FritzDude

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    #16  Edited By FritzDude
    @AlisterCat said:


                        Still no fix for the Sketchy Quest? Ugggghhh... that quest was broken in both my playthroughs.

                       

                   

    It's been addressed by the developers, and if you look on the "Plot" section on the fixes it says "more" so, it should be fixed in this one, hopefully. 
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    Catolf

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    #17  Edited By Catolf

    So.... I can finally get Epic and get my platinum? FUCK YES!

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    phrosnite

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    #18  Edited By phrosnite

    Curse you! Now I will have the urge to play it again. I had scheduled my 4th playthrough to be in September-Nov. :)

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    TheHT

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    #19  Edited By TheHT

    Holy shitballs, that's a lot of changes.

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    babblinmule

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    #20  Edited By babblinmule

    As long as they fix the import stuff I'm a happy camper.
     

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    Afroman269

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    #21  Edited By Afroman269

    Did they patch in diverse environments too? I jest....but still too late for me, I put this game behind me and have had it uninstalled for a while now. 

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    RandomInternetUser

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    @Aetheldod said:
    What????? Warriors were awesome as they were >:3 not getting this patch
    Same.  I shall decline the update as I want my warriors to stay insanely powerful.
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    BlackHeronBlue

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    #23  Edited By BlackHeronBlue

    Any idea when it's coming to PC/Steam?

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    FritzDude

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    #24  Edited By FritzDude

    Just a little update

      
    -The Xbox 360 patch is out and should be live in all regions. For the complete list of changes go here: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/301/index/7504254/1#7504659
     
    -The European version for the PS3 patch is now live, but still no words on when the NA version will go live. For the complete list, and any confirmation on when the NA version will be out go here: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/302/index/7497637/1#7504614
     
    -The PC/Mac/Steam version should hit later this week. Because of some installation and launch problems with the patch it was puched back a little and therefore the console version got it first. If you want to keep an eye out for it go here: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/300/index/7426658/1 

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    EvilTwin

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    #25  Edited By EvilTwin

    It's awesome that they're releasing a real patch that's basically fixing all the bugs in the game and even rejiggering some of the balance.  Good on you, Bioware.
     
    Unfortunately, it's still not going to make it a great game.

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    Erebus

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    #26  Edited By Erebus

    Too late now. Finished the game a couple months ago. Maybe in future I won't play these games right away and await the inevitable big fixer-patch

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    Rebirth1337

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    #27  Edited By Rebirth1337
    "Audio Balance - We weren't happy with how loud combat audio was in comparison to exploration and dialog so our audio team did some fine-tuning on that. " Something I wish they would have done for DA:O.
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    SSully

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    #28  Edited By SSully
    @Erebus said:
    Too late now. Finished the game a couple months ago. Maybe in future I won't play these games right away and await the inevitable big fixer-patch
    Yeah I am thinking of holding off a few months on big RPGs like this. There always seems to be pretty big changes or DLC that I miss out on because I get the games so early . 
     
    I am considering doing another play through when this patch hits. I still never finished my first play through that I have 40+ hours on, I ran into a fair share of bugs and the repetitive dungeons were getting tedious.

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